Few hospitals qualify for digital funds

Though hospitals are eligible for billions of dollars in federal stimulus money to bring their facilities into the digital age to save money and improve the quality of health care, just one in 10 is ready to meet government standards to qualify for the funds, a new analysis shows. A study by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), based in Chicago, shows just 10 percent of the nation's hospitals are "now ready" to address all 14 core measures the government is requiring before they can get extra payments from the federal Medicare health insurance program for the elderly or Medicaid health insurance for the poor.